TURNING
INTO N
THING
Courses for Infinite Freedom
Enlightenment is kind of a dumb idea
There are two basic problems. First, if you're not already enlightened, you can't really even know what the word means. Second, even if you become enlightened, you'll still be at a loss for words describing it to anyone who's not. This inexpressibility cloaks enlightenment in a misleading mystique, making the whole concept even more useless.
Freedom is a far more useful goal
Freedom from suffering is a lot nicer than the alternative. Freedom to be your true self means you can stop pretending to be what you're not. A free mind never remains trapped by its own concepts and interpretations. Freedom always opens up new possibilities, and no matter where you're starting from, you can always become more free.
There is a kind of freedom that can never be taken away
This freedom is unconditional. It persists no matter how the circumstances of your life change. It comes from recognizing your true nature. Once you know it, you can't unknow it. There is a method to discovering this truth about what you are. The method is letting go. By releasing everything that's not really you, the truth is uncovered, bit by bit. Once you get started, it's quite astonishing just how much you can let go of.
These courses teach you a kind of mind yoga
The first time you take a yoga class, you can only manage some of the poses. First, you need to build up strength, free up flexibility, and learn to isolate muscles you don't normally use. Mind yoga is no different. With the right sequence of exercises, your mind becomes more flexible and more capable. Before long, you can learn to use it in ways you didn't know were possible.
Inquiry and experimentation are the keys
Any decent spiritual or psychological theory can be temporarily helpful, as a new way to make sense of your world. Every practice has something valuable to offer. None, however, were tailor-made for you. It is only by hacking existing theories and practices that you can discover what makes the most difference for you. You are as qualified as anyone has ever been, to inquire into your own nature.
Nothing can set you free
Over a lifetime of training, you have learned to devote your attention to the endlessly changing contents of experience. You have been conditioned to identify with the character you play in life's drama. But all along, the greatest secret of your existence has been waiting in the background. You are not a thing. You are not even a happening. You are the context within which all things happen. Turn away from the content, into the context behind all experience, and you'll find nothing there - changeless and infinite. But nothing, as it turns out, can set you free.
Your Course Navigators
Jed McKenna
Jed McKenna is the alias of Ken McMordie. He was not the writer of any of the books about the fictional Jed McKenna. He did, however, invent the name, as a rearrangement of his own, and consult on the first trilogy of books as the resident truth-realized character model. Those books, and the imaginary anti-guru they spawned, were the genius brainchild of someone else entirely. There is some overlap between the two imaginary Jeds, but plenty of divergence as well. Ken, always a rule-bender, had his own checkered past from his pre-truth-realization days, but it's really not that interesting. He died in the summer of 2021, inasmuch as that which was never born can be said to have died.
Zara Songull
Zara Songull, Ph.D., was a student of Jed's before they became best buddies and course co-constructors. They worked together on the Letting Go of Everything course for the final two years of Jed's life. Zara completed the course over successive years in close collaboration with Jed's ghost. Zara is a psychologist with over 30 years experience counseling individuals and couples.